Comments, opinions and an occasional ramble
The Observer on Zaobao
The Observer was featured on the front page of today’s Zaobao Fukan.
We’re given the biggest coverage among all the campus publications, and it appears to be due to the fact that the Observer is completely self-funded and self-sustaining.
I think this would probably be a surprise to some people that we run the entire ship on our own. It should not be that much of a surprise if one thinks a little harder. If the Observer wants to be completely objective, the only way is to try and stay independent of possible influences from other organisations as much as possible, and that includes the NUS administration. We do not want to take a cent from NUS because doing so will give NUS a hold over our reporting.
Of course, that those from the Observer are willing to pay and stay despite no benefits of CCA records, points, or whatever other perks you can think of says alot about the people we have. I don’t mean diss the other publications but I’m proud that those from the Observer are willing to give all that it takes to create a new path, even if it means having to take their time, effort, energy and money. At least there’s some real passion burning here.
After reading the article, from a journalistic perspective, it was well written, and reflected the varying perspectives. There was one thing though. I wanted to laugh out real loud reading the comments of Nurhdyati (I’m not sure if I spelt the name right) of Hooked, a NUSSU spawned lifestyle publication. She called the Observer a mere blog because we are not official media of NUS.
Well, at least most of what is written in blogsphere are alot more honest and intelligent than “official” MSM in Singapore. And, I think some blogs are more popular than MSM even. Of course, if I had to compare Observer with Hooked, I would say that it’s probably comparing something like Kway Teow Man or Yawning Bread to Xiaxue. It’s obvious what you would turn to for intelligent pieces or tabloids.
| Print article | This entry was posted by Aaron Ng on 29/11/2006 at 1:10 pm, and is filed under Observer Observations. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
about 5 years ago
lol…. I like the observer! The articles are insightful and thought-poking. However, I didnt know you guys were independent. Wow…. it’s great to see an independent NUS news source. Is there any plans to have hard-copy publications? Or advertising to the students? I doubt many know of observers existence.
I dont think it is appropriate of Hook to compare and apple with a orange. Hook=lifestyle & entertainment news. Observer=socio-political analysis and discussions.
about 5 years ago
Well Charissa, I would love to do print, really. We have everything but the money. It would take us, at the minimum, an estimated $6,000 for a fortnightly print publication a semester. It’s hardly something that we can afford if we were to pay ourselves, unless our staff grows bigger. It’s something that we hope to achieve eventually, but for now, I guess we’ll have to settle for the electronic version until we find a sugar daddy that allows us to maintain editorial independence. Above all, editorial independence is the most important thing to us.
about 5 years ago
Hello… I too find it ludicrous that that particular member of NUS Hooked actually said that the Campus Observer resembles a “collective blog by students” (literal translation of what she said in the ZBNow article).
The quality of writing found in the Observer is evidently of a much higher & serious quality than those found in Hooked.
Well, I suppose she haven’t been reading blogs such as Singapore Angle and/or The Intelligent Singaporean; perhaps she have only visited blogs like Xiaxue’s (no offence to her or Xiaxue).
Hmm… Just some suggestions…
Perhaps you all (the Observer staff) should publicise more about yourself. I mean, if I did not stumble into your blog through the Intelligent Singaporean a few weeks ago, I wouldn’t have known about you all and would perhaps just think you all are just another run-of-the-mill newsletter CCA of NUS…
Of course, I understand that, in comparison with Hooked (which “spams” every NUS student’s NUS mailbox), you all are quite handicapped in publicity funds but it won’t hurt to publicise more, would it?
Also, while I understand that your requirement that those interested in joining you all need to have some form of background in journalism is a means of maintaining the journalistic quality of the Observer, it seems to me that this requirement perhaps act as a deterring factor for those who are interested to join you all but have no journalistic background. And this in turn handicaps you all in expanding the size of your staff, if you get what I mean…
Ok, that’s all I have to say for now… Back to revising for my exams!
about 5 years ago
Will observer still be there when i matriculate next year? It sounds like an interesting undertaking…
about 5 years ago
Kudos to the people at the Campus Observer for all the effort put in.
I spend more time reading articles on Campus Observer than on Hooked or Ridge. While there are good articles coming from the latter two publications, I find that the Campus Observer has much higher standards, and dares to investigate issues hardly mentioned by the others. The excellent coverage of the various faculty club and NUSSU elections comes to mind.
In any case, I eagerly await the next update.
P.S. I don’t know if it’s feasible, but maybe a PayPal link could be set up for donations? Not that I think NUS students are a giving lot but I see no harm trying…
And just a note, the person saying that the Observer is a mere blog seems to be perpetrating that very same dichotomy between the MSM and blogs, that somehow blogging is less reliable and prone to factual errors than MSM.
I wonder if she holds the Straits Times (cough) or Stomp in any high regard. 
about 5 years ago
Hi LCC,
I agree that there’s alot more that we can do. The biggest reason why we couldn’t do as much as we would like to is simply because we didn’t have staff. The 14 of us were mainly holding the fort, covering the entire NUS. Thankfully, we have some new recruits joining our ranks and hopefully, that will free up some of the senior editors to concentrate on other stuff such as publicity.
I am not sure if you agree with us, but at Observer, we decided to focus on content first and not publicity. We eschewed the typical Singaporean of starting with a bang and lots of fanfare because we didn’t know if it was going to work and it will look ridiculous if we start full of promises and ended up delivering empty promises. After a semester of operation, I think we got the basics right, and now is the time to tweak our operations, especially on the policy side.
In anycase, are you not tired of the spam by the “legitimate” groups in NUS? I am tired of them. I am more inclined to read an email if it’s sent by a friend. I do hope that if you find something interesting, just cut and paste the link to your friends. In a way, this is part of our Observer identity too. We are a David that’s facing the NUS Goliath and there are obstacles that are too big for us to overcome by conventional means so, we’ve to turn unconventional. If you have ideas, by all means, share it with me. You can leave me a message on my contact page.
Also, if you want to join us, or any of your friends want to, just let me know. Journalistic experience or writing well is of little importance to us because that is a matter of training. We are interested in people with the right attitude. Slowly, we are growing and hopefully one day, the Observer will grow to be something that all students can really identify as their own, and not some artificial construct dreamed up by the school.
By the way, I hope the exams has been going well for you. All the best!
about 5 years ago
Well nedstark,
As far as I can see, the Observer is going to be around. We will be preparing for succession of the inaugural editorial team, so if you are interested to come on board, we warmly welcome you. If you are interested and have the time, you can join us even before you start school. We start publishing first week of the coming semester, which is 8th Jan. I’m always available to discuss if you like.
about 5 years ago
Hi Hai~Ren,
I think we can consider a paypal link. However, paypal isn’t that Singapore friendly, but it’s better than nothing I suppose.
At the Observer, it’s natural that our standards are higher than the other publications on campus because we draw our writer and editor pool from students who have done proper journalism courses. Journalism courses are not just about writing; it’s about much more, such as law, ethics and standards. These things have evolved through many years and it takes an experienced practitioner to teach. This is why the Observer has the edge. We have experience practitioners training us, and the Observer is where we take things from classroom training to real life situations.
The Observer staff will meet again at the end of December to discuss the workplan for next semester. There are likely to be many major changes but not to worry, one thing that will never change is our pursuit of information for the public’s interest.
about 5 years ago
Hmm… While I understand your, and your colleagues at the Observer, preference to develop the content of your online newspaper first, I think that it is also perhaps equally important to utilise part of your resources, albeit limited, on publicity. I mean, good content is of little use if no one knows about it and/or bothers to go and access it, if you get what I mean. Yes, I suppose you all have been receiving quite a fair bit of free publicity with the ZBNow article but it seems to me that, in this exam period, few NUS students, which I suppose is the main target group you and your colleagues are trying to reach out to, will actually pay attention to the newspapers. [If a tree collapses in the middle of a large jungle unpopulated by human beings, was there a sound made?]
About the “spam” that I receive in my NUS mailbox, I don’t actually bother about them since my NUS mailbox is not my main emailbox; I just usually delete them if they do not deserve my attention.
As for the possibility of me joining you all, I think that possibility is, as of now, quite low, considering that I will soon be involved in the activities of the publications sub-committee of this NUS subject/major-based society I just joined.
Of course, I think I will help to “publicise” the Observer to my friends whenever possible.
about 5 years ago
Hi Aaron and LCC,
I’m Nita, also part of the Observer team under the biz cell. Thanks for your comments and suggestions about publicity.
I think what needs to be done over the holidays is to think of more unconventional ways to publicise TCO, and I think for a start an identity is very important.
From the discussion, I have gathered that perhaps TCO is being perceived as a credible news source with a good standard of writing. Also, the fact that we are not primarily a lifestyle publication does differentiate us.
Now that our operations have more or less been stabilised, I think we need to focus on our publicity, and to tell the truth, we need to go further than word-of-mouth.
Unfortunately, because of our stand on editorial content first, business second, we are pretty much constrained and therefore the need for more unconventional publicity and marketing strategies.
Hopefully we get inspired over the next two weeks to come up with a great publicity plan for the next semester! And keep the suggestions coming in, we appreciate it lots!
about 5 years ago
Is there anyway i can access ur online newspaper?
about 5 years ago
nedstark:
http://campusobserver.org/
about 5 years ago
hmmm…looks good…btw as a matter of curiosity…are members of the law faculty active in such matters? and i apologise for any inconvenience my constant queries cause…
about 5 years ago
Hi LCC,
I note your comments and I’ll be address it when we start our workplan discussions for the coming semester. The Observer will have to expand itself a little more next semester if we want to continue growing.
Best wishes in your endeavour in the society that you joined. I don’t think that you can’t be in two places at one time, though. At Observer, I think you’ll learn the art of writing faster because our editors are pretty much trained in writing. While anyone can write, being able to write well according to established standards require some training.
about 5 years ago
Well nedstark,
The Observer would love to have correspondences from Law because now that its moved to Bukit Timah, we need people to provide the news from that side. We don’t have Law correspondents as yet, but we’ll be interested in having one.
about 5 years ago
Hmmmm…thats the problem…it seems that they are using the strategem of Divide And Conquer…anyway i still have till next year to enrol so i will think about it…
about 5 years ago
“If the Observer wants to be completely objective, the only way is to try and stay independent of possible influences from other organisations as much as possible, and that includes the NUS administration.”
I checked out The Campus Observer website but couldn’t find any publication of your accounts. If the editorial team is keen to demonstrate independence from external influence, transparent publication of accounts would be a positive move towards that goal.
about 5 years ago
Hi Devil’s Advocate,
Thank you for your suggestion. We will publish our accounts at the end of our term. We have not crossed our first year yet, and I think it’s pretty much accepted standards that accounts are published once a year.
P.S. I’m sorry I removed the blockquote tag from your comment because it was showing up funny for reasons I don’t know why. I think there is something that wasn’t properly coded but I’m not able to find out the problem. I’ve italicised your quote instead of using a blockquote.
about 5 years ago
Hi Aaron,
Kudos to you and the team at the Campus Observer! The overall quality of your paper is in my opinion much higher than the other official publications.
However, like the rest of the readers, I do find that publicity is quite needed for the publication to move ahead. Although I have came upon your blog quite a few times before, but I only went to the Observer after seeing the Zaobao article (haha so that’s one NUS student slacking away in the exam period, LCC).
Before reading the article, I thought the Observer was a printed publication…
Perhaps a link on your personal blog side bar might give it slightly more publicity as well.
Maybe the age old method of pasting publicity posters in NUS is a cheap publicity method worth looking into(though I am not sure if NUSSU and OED might allow that due to the observer’s non NUS affliated status)
Just throwing up some ideas.
about 5 years ago
Damn I’m proud of you.